the introduction of computer and video games in
TRANSCRIPT
THE INTRODUCTION OF COMPUTER AND
VIDEO GAMES IN MUSEUMS EXPERIENCES AND POSSIBILITIES FROM
FINNISH POINT OF VIEW
MA Tiia Naskali, PhD Jaakko Suominen & PhD Petri Saarikoski
Digital Culture, Faculty of Humanities, University of Turku
Making the History of Computing Relevant
History of Computing Conference June 2013
RESEARCH PROJECT — Home Computer Era
and the Heritage of Technological Hobbyist Culture
Over the last ten years, the spectrum of Finnish studies on the history of
computing has become wider than ever. In addition to documenting the
history of technological artifacts, research projects have also started to
focus on the role of computers in everyday life.
Our approach is to look for the roots of today’s phenomena in the home
computer era of the 1980s and 1990s.
The project is coordinated by the University of Turku, Digital Culture
Studies, and runs from 2013 to 2014.
More information about the project: http://kotikone.wordpress.com/
We would like to thank the Kone Foundation for funding the
research project.
THE INTRODUCTION OF COMPUTER AND
VIDEO GAMES IN MUSEUMS
THE AIM OF THIS PAPER
This presentation creates an overview of how digital gaming
devices have been introduced in museum exhibitions over the
last 15 years. The following presentation will give examples of
exhibitions from different countries, especially from Finland,
and provides an answer to the question:
• Can digital games and gaming devices be used as
promotional tools for attracting new audiences to
museums?
PULLING IN WITH DIGITAL GAMES
• Games are linked to changes in players’ social relationships, as well as
the uses of media and technologies, and their consumption of forms of
popular culture.
• When people recollect their game histories and articulate these
recollections, they often express feelings that can be interpreted in the
context of nostalgia.
• Game-related (positive) feelings are often collective, social and personal,
as well as being individual at the same time.
• Gamer generations are employed in the workforce and, in such positions,
they are able to institutionalize something that is important for them.
Growing number of game exhibitions and an interest in games.
A photo from the Berlin computer game
museum in 2011. Photo: Päivi Lahdelma
A photo from the Game On! traveling
exhibition in 2003. Photo: Petri Saarikoski
EXHIBITION TIME MUSEUM
PERMANENT/
TEMPORARY/
TRAVELING APPROACH
Videotopia 1996–2011 traveling exhibition
(worldwide) traveling
art/ science/ cultural
history
Game On 2002– traveling exhibition
(worldwide)
temporary,
traveling cultural history/ art
C:/DOS/RUN –
Remembering the 80s
Computer
25.8.–
9.10.2005
Film Archive, New
Zealand temporary art
READY – The Golden Age
of Commodore
9.3.–
28.5.2006
Rupriikki Media Museum,
Finland temporary
cultural history/ one
platform
From Computer Clubs to
Homes
27.9.–
12.11.2006
Satakunta Museum,
Finland temporary cultural history
WoW: Emergent Media
Phenomenon
14.6.–
4.10.2009
Laguna Art Museum,
California, United States temporary
art/ focused on cultural
products based on World
of Warcraft -game
Play! – game and art
exhibition
20.11.2009–
31.1.2010 Salo Art Museum, Finland temporary cultural history/ art
From Pong to
PlayStation
from May
2010 to
December 2011
24.4.2013–
26.1.2014
Elektra Sähkömuseo
[Museum of Electricity],
Finland
Museum of Technology,
Finland
temporary,
traveling cultural history
Computer Games –
The evolution of a medium 21.1.2011–
Computerspiele Museum,
Berlin, Germany permanent art/ cultural history
Pac-Man - Older than
Pori Art Museum 14.5.2011 Pori Art Museum, Finland temporary
cultural history/ one
game
Finnish Games Then
and Now 5.-10.6.2012
Rupriikki Media Museum,
Finland temporary
cultural history/ Finnish
game industry
The Art of Video Games 16.3.–
30.9.2012
traveling exhibition
(United States)
temporary,
traveling art
Spacewar! Video Games
Blast Off
15.12.2012–
3.3.2013
Museum of the Moving Image,
New York, US temporary
cultural history/ focused
on the Spacewar! -
game
Applied Design 2.3.2013–
31.1.2014
The Museum of Modern Art,
New York, US temporary art/ design
THE VARIETY OF GAME EXHIBITIONS —
FROM GENERALISM TO SPECIALIZATION
• Games are audiovisual products with a variety of features.
• Games have tangible and intangible features, which provide
multiple – and multimodal – ways for examining games and
relating them to different kinds of exhibitions and museums.
• The interest in general exhibitions has already started to
decrease and more original and special theme exhibitions have
become even more popular.
• People who design these exhibitions, are gaining more
experience and new ideas about how to display games in
exhibitions.
A Photo from the Pac-Man Older than Pori Art Museum
-exhibition project in 2011. Photo: Janne Karvinen
GAMES AS AN EXHIBITION ATTRACTION
• Game and technology related exhibitions have attracted young
people that don’t visit museums very often.
• Interactivity, participation, the possibility to handle objects and play
games interests many visitors.
• Games can be used as promotional or pull in products for attracting
new audiences, particularly male-visitors.
• Digital gaming and digital technologies have their own unique
cultural history while at the same time, the cultural heritage of digital
technology is constantly emerging.
Games are, on their own, important and that is why games
should not be used only as promotional gimmicks.
CONCLUSION – KEY QUESTIONS
• What is the museum context for the exhibition? (cultural historical
museum, art museum, museum of science and technology, museum
of communication, games, computers etc.)
• What is the role of game in its in entirety? (main topic, supporting
role, or an instrumental role in introducing something else)
• What is the context of the introduction of games? (popular
cultural, artistic, everyday life, certain era, military, technological,
design, innovation process etc.)
• How to use freshly multimodal and interactive affordances of
games?
• Who is the audience?
BIBLIOGRAPHY Barwick, Joanna, Dearnley, James & Muir, Adrienne: Playing Games With Cultural Heritage: A Comparative Case Study Analysis of the Current S
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THANK YOU!
PowerPoint presentation (pdf): http://kotikone.wordpress.com/2013/06/03/london/